Another thing I love about film!Aragorn is that he never tells the hobbits his real name or that he’s a king. The hobbits call him “Strider” and know NOTHING about his true identity until they reach Rivendell.
The hobbits only find out The Truth™ when Legolas reveals Aragorn’s identity at the Council of Elrond. Frodo’s face as he turns to look at Aragorn:
“Hey weird dirt man we met in a bar, were you ever planning on telling us you were the king of Gondor, or….”
In the books, Aragorn reveals his true identity to the hobbits during their first conversation in Bree. Aragorn then tells them that he hadn’t *wanted* to reveal his true identity, and only revealed it because he had to. He says something like “I didn’t want you to follow me because I’m The Destined King™, I wanted you to follow me because you trusted me as a person.” He wanted the hobbits to like him for his own sake, not for his magical kingly destiny.
In the films……..Aragorn doesn’t flat-out *tell* the hobbits that in dialogue, but it’s clearly *shown* in the way he acts?
Film!Aragorn doesn’t reveal his true identity as the King of Gondor. If the hobbits like him, he wants it to be because they like him for who he is as a person. And it’s funny to think that if they had just gone home to the Shire after their journey, the film-hobbits would never have learned that Aragorn had any other name besides Strider. They would’ve spent the rest of their lives believing he was nothing more than a brave skilled Ranger who helped them out.
Because that’s the way Aragorn wanted it? He didn’t want the hobbits to see him as King, he didn’t want them to bow to him, he just wanted to help them.
Which is great because you just picture the hobbits going up to Aragorn after they learn the truth like that one scene from the Lion King:
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